Trinamool Minister in ‘Saffron’ camp

Kolkata:Refugee, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister of Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet Manjul Krishna Thakur today joined BJP in party’s state headquarters . The Minister was accompanied by his son Subrata Thakur who also joined the party along with his father.

The father-son duo was welcomed into the party by BJP state President Rahul Sinha. The Minister declared that he has already submitted his resignation to the Chief Minister before joining the party.

Rahul Sinha termed the joining as ‘historical’ and said, this joining has enhanced BJP’s power within the Matua community and warned the Trinamool Congress that its days are drawing near.

When asked about the reason behind the change in colour, Thakur said, “I could not work over there as a Minister. No good people can survive within the TMC.” He added, “I wanted to work for the people and BJP is a Party which has positive attitude and its agenda is towards the service of the people.”

When asked about the reaction of the Chief Minister, Thakur took on Mamata by saying that she doesn’t say anything. She has her ‘own pride’. She does ‘whatever she feels like’.

When asked whether Subrata will be BJP’s candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha by poll in Bongaon, the BJP President said, “Things have not been finalized yet. We will send names of people who want to contest the elections. The central committee of the party will decide on the matter.

The Lok Sabha seat of Bongaon fell vacant after the death of MP Kapil Krishna Thakur, the elder brother of Manjulal Krishna Thakur. There was a tussle between the two factions of Trinamool congress over the selection of Party’s candidate for the by poll. The widow of the Late MP, Mamata Bala Thakur’s name was doing the rounds as the candidate for TMC but the Minister and his associates were pushing for Subrata. BJP utilized the chance well enough to widen the crack within the TMC and give a perfect jolt to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by taking out one of her cabinet colleagues.

This seat has a large number of Matua vote bank and the family fissure now stands tall on TMC. With the BJP sweeping out a major share of Trinamool’s vote bank may it be a silver lining for the left?

In the previous elections TMC received 42% of the votes while CPI (M) and BJP had received 31% and 19% votes respectively. Moreover, the last poll had also seen a drop in the vote share of both TMC and the Left whereas BJP was the gainer.

Now whether the BJP will be able to increase its share of vote to emerge victorious or Left will be benefitted out of Thakur family feud or wheather TMC will be able to retain its ground, is a matter of question.